


Fluff! (feat. Kartik and Aman)

by I_Shouldnt_Be_Here



Category: Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Kittens, M/M, Romance, just for fun, this was basically written to get out of writer's block
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26429542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Shouldnt_Be_Here/pseuds/I_Shouldnt_Be_Here
Summary: What happened when Kartik brought home a couple of kittens. Aman slowly learns to fall in love with them while Kartik falls in love with him again. Cue copious amounts of fluff.
Relationships: Kartik Singh/Aman Tripathi
Comments: 21
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!

A grey heaviness wrapped around Kartik’s shoulders. He was coming back home from another tiresome evening shift at his workplace. Hours of looking at Excel-sheet rectangles with numbers that made less and lesser sense as time plodded on. His shoes pressed black shadows into the fluorescent lighting of the stairs.

He stared at lines in the concrete slabs of the stairs, head slumped down, shoulders hunched painfully until he spied a fuzzy grey tail, curled lazily around one of the metal rods supporting the banister.

His eyes brightened and his head perked up. A pair of mirror-green eyes and an impassive face said _hello._

“Hello babu…” He clicked his fingers and replied to that wordless greeting.

He hitched his bag higher over the shoulder and settled his pristine black trousers over the cement staircase. He swore the cat gave him a tiny, complicit grin.

The cat eyed at large human seated beside curiously. The mirror-green eyes shone with flecks of yellow and the black pupils appeared almost a shiny blue under the harsh white light. Kartik twirled his fingers in front of her face (yes, he referred to cats as ‘her’, don’t ask.) He flicked and twirled his fingers in front of the cat. She was large-sized, probably an adult, and wasn’t too playful.

She followed each one of Kartik’s dancing fingers with her eyes. He was careful not to get swiped by her paw. She purred and Kartik thought that was the best thing that happened all day, apart from Aman’s hugs. 

“Babu, so, how’s your day been?” He talked to her peculiarly intelligent face and proceeded to free himself from the tiresome memories of excel-sheet cells.

His hands hesitantly wandered to the top of her head.

He babbled at her with narrations of the mundane, while the cat looked at him with eyes that seemed to believe that all the secrets of the world were meticulously written down on spreadsheets. Maybe they were.

“Ai ye billi bas yaha gandagi karegi. Niklo yaha se!” A middle-aged woman shooed the cat from six feet away, without sparing a second glance at Kartik. She hissed, looking directly at the cat who dashed a few flights up. Kartik rose in surprise too and hurriedly paced away to the next flight of stairs so he didn’t have to see her face.

_(This cat will only shit here…get out!)_

Still not looking at Kartik, she muttered, _…_ billiyan paalne ka itna shauk hai to apne ghar…apne ghar leke jaao. 

_(…If you like cats that much…take them…take them to your own bloody house.)_

Ah well, Kartik was used to getting interrupted. Especially when it came to good things. The cats dashed up and away, leaving him in the stairwell like a dysfunctional, crooked lamppost.

He trudged upward still, towards his flat. The cat crossed his path again, swiping at his trousers in irritation. Kartik felt a brush against his leg and looked downward. The cat looked at him like she owed him money.

“Babu ab kya ho gaya?” He muttered while the cat insisted by pulling his pant legs.

_(What happened this time huh?)_

She slunk a few steps down, waiting for Kartik to follow. He knew, because as soon as he took a step upward in the opposite direction, she came one step closer and looked at him imploringly. And it was nigh impossible to say no to those mirror-green eyes.

She led him down to the bottom the stairwell, to that wedge where the first flight met the floor.

Her striped tail disappeared into the semi darkness. Kartik bent down to look at the two kitten-shaped secrets inside a torn cardboard box.

One was white with mud-brown patches over it, while the other was grey, black and white striped like its mother. Kartik snapped his fingers at the box and two pairs of bewildered yellow eyes walked out from the darkness.

When he looked at those tiny kittens, he knew he had to take them home.

…

Aman knew that his boyfriend was a relentless onslaught of surprises (don’t ask about the seven birthday cakes) but he didn’t expect he’d walk in with _three_ cats.

“Abey inko kahan se utha laaya?”

 _(Exactly_ where _did you find these creatures?)_

“Pakad isko, gir jayegi!” Kartik handed him a kitten with wide eyes, anticipating an accident. Two of its legs dangled downward as Aman held it by the belly, both looking visibly uncomfortable.

_(Hold it, it’ll fall!)_

Kartik stood in the doorway and watched Aman struggling with the kitten, face twisted in utter bewilderment.

“Andar aa, aur teri khair nahi.” Aman warned.

_(Get inside, you’re going to have it from me.)_

Kartik entered the house sheepishly, unlike the older cat, who entered like a sovereign over their own empire.

Aman frenzied about to accomplish the impossible task of cat proofing the whole apartment in _five_ minutes.

He dumped the wheeled work chair over the bed, he rushed to stow spice containers in cabinets and his precious books (strewn around the house in random places) inside shelves. The helpless kittens circled Kartik and purled as he saw his boyfriend work with a never-seen-before speed.

“Abey mera muh taadna band kar pehle iss tabaahi ke liye cardboard box lekar aa!”

_(Stop staring first get a cardboard box for this disaster!)_

“Ghar pe nahi hai, tuney hi pichle hafte sab phenk diya tha…” Kartik replied sheepishly, caught in the act of staring at his adorable boyfriend.

_(We don’t have those in the house, you threw them out last week…)_

“Jugaad kar kahi se mujhe nahi pata.” Aman spat.

_(I don’t care, get one from somewhere.)_

Kartik’s head dropped downward, and he slunk out of the door in the impossible pursuit of a cardboard box.

Meanwhile, Aman worked himself at a mad pace to cat-proof the whole house. He had a few heavy books in his arms.

His shoulders relaxed. He looked down to see a kitten looking at him.

With pure _rapture_ on her face.

Aman paused after looking at those arresting yellow eyes. The kitten looked at him curiously and purled.

Meanwhile the cat stood beside a chair and the other kitten was having a duel to the death with a sofa cushion.

Aman fell on the floor with a tired sigh. He took in the new sounds around him. The varying pitches of the cats floated around him. These sounds were new, after months of working a job at a local college and watching the sun set to the sounds of loud music while Kartik came home in the evening.

He remembered Kartik moving in with him. How he slowly got used to his sounds. His footsteps, the songs under his breath and the scrape of his towel scrubbed over damp hair. He slowly got used to those sounds until he couldn’t bear returning to the house on late afternoons without music playing in the background.

_Cats would be another addition to this list_ , he thought grudgingly. He set out to prepare some broth for the kittens.

“Sunn Aman, I have names for the cats!” Kartik entered sideways, bearing a medium shaped cardboard box.

“Kya?”

“Ye wali ka naam Madhubala, aur uska Sridevi.”

“Oof, trust you to pick out two people who lived two generations apart.”

“Kya fark padta hai, dono ki aankhen dekhi hai?” Kartik went moon-eyed for a second after looking at the two kittens. Aman got confused about who he was referring to.

_(What does it matter? Have you looked at their eyes?)_

The larger cat, their mother, went away on her own after visiting them for the first few days.

…


	2. Chapter 2

Kartik lounged on the armchair beside the sofa with headphones playing soft music. It had been a while since he sat down to do _nothing_. The cats had been a rather constant source of excitement over the past couple of months. A book lay closed on the small table, inviting him to pick up from where he left.

He leaned back on the headrest, closed his eyes and let the music take over. His hand wandered into Aman’s hair, who lay beside him napping on the couch.

His fingers danced over Aman’s forehead and gracelessly meandered into his hair, because of the awkward angle. His hand felt the straight glossiness of his hair, the gentle prickle of his scalp. He knew, by instinct (because touching it had become instinct), how Aman’s hair felt.

The headphones had placed a comfortably translucent blanket over his eyes, but he thought he saw a grey ball of fluff out of the corner of his eye. He thought he even felt a whisker of fur pass over his hand.

A few seconds later, Aman let out a gasp and a kitten screeched. The kitten fell on his neck and his hand swiped it right onto the floor.

Kartik shook out of his half-asleep state to find a kitten on the floor, looking up at Aman with the utmost _guiltlessness._ Huge, curious black eyes met Aman’s disoriented, sleepy brown ones. Kartik immediately let out a soft ‘awww’.

“Sab kuch tujh se hi seekha hai.” Aman looked at Kartik, disgruntled.

_(She’s learnt everything from you only.)_

Aman stared suspiciously at the cat as it locked eyes with him in a faceoff. The kitten (named graciously as Madhubala) looked up at him with huge eyes, that seemed to get softer with every passing second. Meanwhile, Aman’s eyes narrowed to slits with suspicion.

He wasn’t about to be woken from a nap by a kitten ever again.

The stalemate continued for half a minute, and the kitten was on the winning side. Aman’s neck (the pace where the cat had fallen upon) prickled with irritation. Kartik watched the whole exchange with an amused smile.

“Kyun usko aise dekh raha hai… mai usko lekar nikal raha hoon, walk par.” Kartik tried to defuse the situation.

_(Why are you looking at her like that…I’m going out with her for a walk.”_

Kartik picked up the kitten gingerly. Aman felt petty enough to throw a wayward comment.

…

Grogginess still haunted Aman’s eyelids. He trudged to the bathroom to wash the sleep off his face, post halfway-aborted afternoon nap. He liked Sridevi a little better, she stayed out of his way most of the time.

That one was quiet, but once he abandoned her after a session of playtime and she mewed pitifully, so pitifully as if he was about to buy all the cat treats in the world and give it _only_ to Madhubala.

He let out a smile. A loud splash of water hit his teeth.

_That was more concern than a human has ever shown me anyway. Apart from Kartik._ He thought to himself, as he poked at the crud between the creases of the eyes on the mirror.

He exited the bathroom and looked around for Sri. He guessed she’d be hungry at this time.

_There she was, demon child possessed, shredding a newspaper (microscopically) and chewing his charger cable at the same time._

Aman palmed his hair, and threw his head up in despair. His forehead screamed ‘what the hell’ and the eyebrows almost planned to fuse together in frustration.

…

Meanwhile, Kartik had a different dilemma altogether. He was sure he cut a strange figure for all bystanders. Tall person, decked out in pastel shades (mint green and pink were his favourites), walking with a freaking kitten, cradled in his arms like an infant.

Ah, the sheer power of a cat’s cuteness. Consequences be damned, Kartik _will_ walk down the roads of Delhi with a kitten in his arms.

Madhubala stared at the traffic lights, the faces peeking from glass windows of cars, people walking down the road with weird pieces of armour they called _clothes,_ the fact tickled her to this day that the strange furs (they were smooth and often coloured in more shades than she had seen on any cat) of humans could actually come _off._

  
She stared at strange metal boxes with headlights and metal grilles on the front while Kartik looked at the sheer wonder in her eyes that darted this way and that. A soft, erratic mewl was often heard as she snuggled deeper into Kartik’s elbows.

Kartik noticed that the bystanders’ eyes got a little bit wider too, when they focused on the kitten, wonder echoing faintly in their own eyes.

One person asked him shyly if he could pet the kitten and Kartik spent the next half an hour chatting to them about different kinds of flowers, _yellow_ flowers specifically for some reason.

…

Kartik entered the house to find Aman, seated cross-legged on the edge of the bed and Sridevi on his lap. An island of calm, in an otherwise chaotic ocean. There was a small bowl (overturned) of cat food, shredded newspapers, a ratty looking charger cable, underwear, books (not torn, thankfully) scattered strategically around Aman, like offerings to a temperamental god who dealt in sacrifices of sundry household items.

Kartik wondered what the hell went wrong this time. He was almost afraid to meet his boyfriend’s eyes. He set Madhubala down and immediately got into cleaning up the mess in the room. Madhubala roamed about, pawing a newspaper fragment here and there.

Kartik worked with a hurry to ignore the feelings of guilt welling in his chest. He often thought that bringing those two cats home had taken a toll upon their life at home, especially on the weekends.

But he needn’t have bothered. He looked up to see Aman glanced at him with a pleasantly tired smile. One of his soft smiles, where he was content with the world passing him by.

“Aaj tumhe kya hua baby? Aise dobaara mat karna theek hai?” Aman baby-talked the kitten as he petted her head. She seemed so damn _smug_ , nestled on Aman’s lap.

_(What happened to you today? Don’t do this again, okay?)_

“Mere baby ne aaj Aman ko tang kiya kya?” Kartik bent over Aman and joined in the baby-talk session. Aman looked at him, first with annoyance, then it melted into something vaguely endearing.

_(What happened? Did my baby get on Aman’s bad side...?)_

“Tere _baby_ ne purey ghar me tabaahi macha di. Bedroom ki haalat dekhi nahi kya?” Aman scoffed a little.

 _(Your_ baby _was an absolute disaster. Didn’t you see what she did to the bedroom?)_

Kartik smiled wide, displaying his teeth for a second. He plopped down on the foot of the bed and his head invaded Aman’s lap. Sridevi wasn’t too happy about having her real estate halved.

Meanwhile, Aman brain short circuited at Kartik’s upside-down pout on his lap.

“Yaar aisa lag raha hai Sridevi ki taraf me tum sorry bol rahe ho… Aise udaasi mei pout karne ki zarurat nahi.” Aman untangled his hands from Sri’s fur and held Kartik’s upside-down cheeks. He smiled, as a thumb ran slowly over those pouted lips. Kartik shivered.

_(Oof, it looks like you’re saying sorry on Sridevi’s behalf… don’t pout like that.)_

“Phir usko kaise sambhala?” Kartik breathed over Aman’s fingers.

_(How did you manage then?)_

“Uski chinta mat kar. Sambhal gayi wahi bahut hai. Mujhe to lag raha tha purey ghar me tod-phod machayegi.” Aman replied.

_(Don’t worry about that…I’m glad that I could calm her down. Otherwise I thought she’d be up for wrecking the whole house.)_

“Itni chhoti bacchi hai, usually kitne shaant rehti hai, but still a disaster.” Kartik said, matter-of-fact. Aman agreed, his finger now playing over Kartik’s upside down hairline.

_(She’s such a small child, stays quiet most of the time but she’s still a disaster.)_

Kartik sighed, then took his bottom lip between his teeth as he glanced deeper into Aman’s eyes. Aman’s face was obscured by a fringe of hair, which still failed to hide his gentle smile, bordering on _mischievous._

He felt Aman’s hands on his cheeks and his fingers rubbing circles behind his ears. Kartik closed his eyes, taking in the feel of his boyfriend’s hands caressing his face.

“This feels so good…” Kartik sighed as he snuggled deeper into Aman’s lap. He could now feel Sri’s warm body against his scalp.

Aman let go for a split second, and deposited the kitten on the bed. Sridevi let out a mewl, and later jumped off the bed to roam around the house with her sister. Kartik adjusted his head on Aman’s lap, while Aman’s hands reclaimed their previous position on Kartik’s cheeks and behind his ears.

Aman bent down and pecked Kartik on the lips. It was short for the first time, and the second was long drawn, reminding Aman that it had been quite a while since he had gotten close to Kartik. Not even sex, just a session of kisses and cuddles. Especially since his workload increased _and_ Kartik brought home the cats at the same time.

Kartik was surprised, then a mischievous smile spread widely over his upside-down lips. At that moment, Aman _knew_ what he was thinking of.

“Spiderman ka naam liya toh dekh lena.” Aman warned, and rested a finger over Kartik’s lips. Kartik chuckled. He wasn’t about to piss Aman off when he was in _that_ mood.

He stood up on fours and kissed Aman deeply. Kartik climbed up the bed as Aman sank into the thin mattress.

…

The next morning, he woke up (pleasantly tired, you know why) with Sridevi on his pillow and Madhubala sniffing a bunch of vibrant yellow sunflowers kept in an empty jam jar on the kitchen counter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I was late. Academic responsibilities *shrug*  
> I swear the cats are the MCs of this fic, not Kartik and Aman.   
> Not my best stuff, but yeah it was something I wrote for fun. Imagine the rest of the scene by yourself please.  
> Some cat incidents described here happened IRL. I'll leave it to you to guess which ones hehe.   
> I have other stuff coming up too, stay tuned!
> 
> Have a good day/night!  
> Kudos and comments make my day!  
> -Advaita

**Author's Note:**

> if you didn't already know (If you dm me, you'll come to know this in 0.05 seconds) that I'm a huge cat person, currently deprived of cats. Writing this was basically stress relief/writer's block remover all at once.  
> I'll post the next chapter probably in a day or two, so stay tuned!
> 
> Kudos and comments make my day!  
> Have a good day/night!  
> -Advaita


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